negotiations, whether the president,senatorreidorothers in about a month, around thanksgiving. with the democrats not reaching out to senator mcconnell for a month, doesn't seem like they have been pushing very hard for a deal, gregg. gregg: has the bickering between reid and boehner sort of poisoned the negotiations past the point that, you know, maybe this meeting will help at all? >> reporter: it may have because it's really, we've seen tensions escalate ever since before christmas when john boehner was not able to get a deal through the house where he has a very strong republican majority. he had a rebellion amongst some of his fellow conservatives. that is what held it up. senator harry reid as you say was very rough going directly after boehner yesterday. take a listen. >> the american people i don't think understand the house of representatives is operating without the house of representatives. it's being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker, not allowing the vast majority of the house of representatives to get what they want. >> reporter: the word dictatorship n

through january 2nd. both sides are still far apart on taxes and spending cuts.harryreidsaysprospect deals by monday are unlikely. minority leader mitch mcconnell says there's still time for an agreement. >> republicans aren't likely to sign a blank check just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff. that wouldn't be fair to the american people. >> now, a new reuters poll shows americans blame republicans more than democrats or president obama for the fiscal crisis. and when asked who they held more response, 27% said the gop, 6% pointed to the dems and 30% said all of the above. for more on this, we're joined by christian schultz from barronberg bank. welcome. so we're going over the fiscal cliff. >> well, the consumer confidenc already be over the cliff in terms of confidence already. that might already be the first impact of the crisis of -- not of the crisis, but yes of the fiscal cliff. it seems we have this moment where this animal goes over the cliff, all limbs are still rotating around and we're staring into the abyss and eventually we're going to fold. >> i love t

to meet with house speaker john boehner, minority leader nancy pelosi, senate majorityharryreidandminority leader mitch mcconnell. that is happening this afternoon. jessica yellin is there. jess, what do we know about the president's plan to get everybody in the same room? do we think there's going to be something that comes out of this? >> reporter: well, this is one of those cases where we really are going to have to wait and see, and all the parties involved are also going in with a big question mark. the idea is the expectation by many of the participants in the meeting is that they hope that they will be able to discuss more details about a scaled-down fiscal cliff plan. and maybe that could lead to some sort of agreement ideally for all parties in which all the senators say that they will not filibuster it, and it can go to a vote. and then speaker boehner could, in theory, agree to bring it to a vote on the house floor after the house comes back on sunday. and then we would get all of this behind us before new year's eve. how likely does that sound? not so likely. >> yo

harryreidtriesto cobble together something that can get some republican support. we'll be waiting to see exactly when president obama is coming back but we understand that the senate even though it reconvenes on thursday may not, senate democrats may not roll out a bill until closer to the new year. also get some republican support and put pressure on the house to take it up. >> we'll be following that very closely. have a wonderful christmas and of course we'll talk with you a little bit later. if there are any developments on the fiscal cliff. stay with cnn for any movement on that standoff day or night. we're the woolstons in turkey. i'm joel. >> katy, sidney, brittany. >> we'd like to wish merry christmas to our family in idaho. merry christmas! >> merry christmas! >> happy holidays! t an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. now this...will work. [ male announcer ] jus

to the senate which will reconvene on thursday. the 27th. house majority leaderharryreidnowhas the task of trying to cobble something together that could perhaps pass the senate and also pass the house with some republican support. the expectation would be some democratic support. the white house is still calling for the threshold on tax cuts to be a quarter million. it seems unlikely republicans would sign on the that, and officially president obama is supposed to be remaining here in hawaii through the new year, it seems likely he will be heading back to washington sometimes around when the senate convenes. and in the meantime, just up in the air about what is going to happen. is it going to be a very unmerry cliff-mass? perhaps. >> i feel like we should pause and listen to the best sound in the world behind you. the waves crashing on the beach. >> pretty good. thanks. >>> dana, as you know, the fiscal cliff crisis is bringing out the creative side of the "usa today" editorial board. >> with the president and congress on holiday break, the newspaper's editors decide a holiday poem was

in the court of senate. senate majority leaderharryreidhasto cobble together something to get support from some republicans in the senate and also from the house in order to aavert this fiscal cliff. the white house right now is saying they want the threshold for the income tax rates at a quarter million dollars. that might be difficult to get republican support on that, so we'll see if that changes, suzanne. >> do we expect that the president is going to come back early from his hawaii vacation if anything happens on the senate side? clearly, he could get things done from hawaii as well, but it could be at least symbolically for him to return to washington. >> reporter: definitely. we expect that he will be heading back to washington, d.c. he was supposed to be here through the new year. i will tell you nothing is official on the schedule that he's definitely going back to d.c., but the sense you get from the white house is that it's more an issue of when and not if. if there is a bill that goes through the senate, the president will have to be there in order to perhaps twist some arms an

andharryreid, leaderof senate democrats essentially saying entitlements are off the table when we know entitlements are the biggest drivers of debt. gregg: there may be a reason for that. marjorie, senator john barosso chairman of the republican policy committee put his finger on it. he believes the president is eager to go over the cliff for political reasons because he senses victory at the bottom of the cliff. those are his words verbatim and, you know, then the president gets to punish republicans. and he also might get more money in a for taxpayers, from taxpayers to expand the government. what about that? >> well i have a really hard time believing anybody, republicans or democrats would win from going over the cliff. talking about potentially putting country in recession, what it would do to the markets. here's the deal. these type of negotiations what we lost a $4 trillion opportunity when boehner and obama were at the table having talks prior to the holiday. what we're looking at really condensed timeline of $1.5 trillion. kay bailey hutchison and other senate republicans come

will have to workout a compromise betweenharryreid, mitchmcconnell the democratic and republican leaders, and the president who is here in hawaii when you talk to his staff they say it's very likely some time after spending christmas with his family, whether it's the middle or later part of this week he's likely to head back to washington to sit down with congressional leaders and try to work this out. >> reporter: it's a bit encouraging for a lot of folks who were wondering about that question. i'm curious is there anyone on the island that is critical to the fiscal talks that joined the president on this trip or is everything being done electronically? >> reporter: most electronic leave. the one interesting point is when i mentioned the memorial service for senator inouye the person giving the oo eulogy was harry reid. they may have got even a chance for a little private time. the president and john boehner have not had any phone contact since friday. their staffs are still communicating but still really very little progress, jaime. >> reporter: thank you so much,ed appreciate the repo

, andharryreidandmitch mcconnell and if there are any statements after that meeting, and if the president has anything to say, we will have coverage of that on c-span and on c-span radio and always on c-span.org. thank you for joining us and enjoy the rest of your weekend. we'll be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> in live look at the executive mansion where negotiations on the looming fiscal cliff move down pennsylvania avenue to the white house today. house and senate leaders meeting with the president to continue work. the meeting is set for 3:00 p.m. and we will monitor any news that comes from that. c-span cameras standing by. now back to the capital. the senate is in for business today. lawmakers are working on the foreign intelligence surveillance bill and also emerged to funding for sandy recovery efforts. the house and senate standing by to consider any fiscal cliff update. we had an update earlier from a reporter covering the issue. host: let's begin with da